People have enjoyed playing pianos for many years. One of the most highly regarded pianos in the world is the Steinway piano which is known for its excellent tonal quality and craftsmanship. Steinway pianos are preferred by many concert pianists around the world. Due to their high quality and labor intensive manufacturing process, high quality pianos are very expensive.
One shortcoming of popular pianos is that they are often manufactured with keyboards of one standard size. Therefore, all persons playing such pianos, from the beginner to the accomplished concert pianist must learn to play this particular size keyboard. While the standard size is very suitable for most people, pianists of smaller physical makeup would find it more desirable to play on a slightly smaller keyboard. Accomplished pianists, however, do not wish to sacrifice the high quality of a piano to which they are accustomed, nor would they wish to replace an existing high quality piano, such as a Steinway, in order to obtain a smaller keyboard.
It would therefore be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for modifying an existing piano to provide a keyboard with a different size and, it would be particularly preferable to provide apparatus and methods for converting a piano to provide keyboards having smaller sizes.